Carlos Yulo goes all-around this time around in Paris Olympics

Carlos Yulo is back for another tour of duty in the Olympics. 

Yulo qualified for the Summer Games anew as he became the highest eligible athlete from floor exercise during the 2023 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. 

The Filipino gymnast is also the only male athlete from Philippine gymnastics' four-member delegation which includes Filipino-Americans Aleah Finnegan, Emma Malabuyo, and Levi Ruivivar.

Now for his second straight Olympic stint, Yulo hopes for a better performance.

Golden boy of Philippine gymnastics

Carlos Yulo has been dominating the sports scene for more than five years now since he got one of his first international medals in the 2018 World Championships where he claimed bronze in floor exercise.

A grassroots product of Manila, Yulo eventually qualified for the Tokyo Olympics as he won the gold in the World Championships for floor exercise the year after. In the Southeast Asian Games in Manila, Yulo won two gold medals in team and floor exercise, and five silver medals from the other apparatus: pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bars.

In the Tokyo Olympics, Yulo missed the floor exercise finals, but qualified in the vault finals where he fell just short -- 0.017 points short of a bronze medal.

After his Tokyo stint, Yulo continued to rake in medals for the Philippines, notable of which are: his World Championships gold medal for vault in 2021, 10 gold medals in three editions of the Asian Championships, and seven gold medals in the Hanoi and Cambodia editions of the Southeast Asian Games.

What happened after Tokyo

However, things became slightly different after the Tokyo Games.

While Yulo tried to excel as well in other apparatuses, a major change happened when he parted ways with former Japanese coach Munehiro Kugimiya. He is now training with Filipino coach Aldrin Castañeda.

Still, Yulo said he is grateful to Kugimiya.

"Siya po talaga 'yung nakakakita ng potential ko. Sobrang thankful po ako sa taong 'yun, sobrang talino. Na-provide niya po lahat ng needs nung nandun ako sa Japan," Yulo said in JP Soriano's 24 Oras interview last April.

Aside from a coaching change, Yulo also said he plans to excel in the all-around event.

"Ang goal ko rin po kasi sa Olympics, maka-individual all-around. Hindi lang floor, hindi lang vault, hindi lang p-bar," he said.

Look who's here

As fate would have it, Yulo will see familiar faces as in his subdivision alone, he will go against the Japan team composed of Tokyo all-around and horizontal bar gold medalist Daiki Hashimoto and pommel horse bronze medalist Kazuma Kaya. Japan, who won silver in the Tokyo team event, will also see Wataru Taginawa returning for the squad.

In the other subdivisions of the qualification, Tokyo floor exercise champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel is also making a comeback, along with silver medalist Rayderley Zapata of Spain, and bronze medalist Xiao Ruoteng.

Yulo's closest competitor in vault back in Tokyo, Artur Davtyan, is also back in the gymnastics event.

—JKC, GMA Integrated News